New Delhi: During his visit, Prime Minister Kishida is scheduled to hold a meeting with H.E. Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the Republic of India, to discuss various key issues in the international community and confirm the cooperation between the G7 and G20 as Japan holds the G7 Presidency and India holds the G20 Presidency.
In addition, Prime Minister Kishida is scheduled to exchange views regarding the deepening of the “Japan-India Special Strategic and Global Partnership” and efforts toward the realization of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”
Prime Minister Modi welcomed Prime Minister Kishida’s visit to India and expressed his hope to work closely with Japan, the G7 Presidency, as the G20 Presidency, and to further develop the bilateral relations under the “Japan-India Special Strategic Global Partnership.”
In response, Prime Minister Kishida welcomed the opportunity to visit India again for the first time in a year and to meet Prime Minister Modi in the same venue again, and stated that he would like to hold thorough discussions in view of the upcoming G7 Hiroshima Summit in May and the G20 New Delhi Summit in September this year, as Japan serves as G7 Presidency and India serves as G20 Presidency. Prime Minister Kishida went on to extend his invitation to Prime Minister Modi to participate in the G7 Hiroshima Summit, to which Prime Minister Modi accepted the invitation.
Cooperation as G7 and G20 Chairs
Prime Minister Kishida expressed his intention to address the challenges facing the international community on the occasion of the G7 Hiroshima Summit from two perspectives: adherence to the international order based on the rule of law and enhancing relations with partners in the international community beyond the G7, including those countries referred to as the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi explained the outcome of the “Global South Summit” that India hosted, as well as India’s priorities as the G20 Presidency, including the perspective of those countries referred to as the Global South.
The two leaders exchanged views on a wide range of issues, including development finance, food security, climate and energy, and confirmed their commitment to discuss and work together on various issues in the international community in the lead-up to both the G7 and G20 summits.
Bilateral relations
- Security and defense
The two leaders welcomed the increasingly active defense exchanges since the second Japan-India Foreign Ministers’ and Defense Ministers’ Meeting (“2+2”) held in September last year, including the first ever Japan-India joint fighter exercise. - Economy and economic cooperation
The two leaders welcomed the steady progress made toward the 5-trillion-yen target of public and private investment and financing from Japan to India in the next five years, which was set in March last year.
The two leaders welcomed the signing of a 300-billion-yen loan for the Project for Construction of high-speed rail and confirmed that they will continue cooperation in promoting the high-speed rail project as a flagship project of Japan and India. The two leaders also confirmed that they would continue cooperation on the development of the North-eastern region of India, through the Japan-India Act East Forum.
The two leaders confirmed to promote cooperation between the two countries under the “India-Japan Clean Energy Partnership” announced last year, and welcomed the latest signing of the Aid Memoire confirming their intention to build a Joint Crediting Mechanism, and confirmed that they will accelerate discussions towards its early establishment.
- People-to-people exchanges
Prime Minister Kishida noted that many cultural exchange projects were held last year to mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and India, as well as the recent resumption of Japan’s programs to invite youths from abroad. He also expressed his intention to utilize the programs of technical intern training and specified skilled workers and to further promote academic exchanges and exchanges between municipalities.
The two leaders concurred on the promotion of the Japanese language education in India, and expressed their hope that such initiatives will contribute to the development of people-to-people and business exchanges between the two countries. Prime Minister Kishida welcomed the amended Memorandum of Cooperation between Japan and India in the Field of Japanese Language Education in India.
Prime Minister Kishida noted the steady progress made in the construction of facilities at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad through Japanese ODA loan and expressed hope that this will lead to further bilateral exchanges of teachers and students, as well as opportunities of IT-related Indian talents to work at Japanese companies.
The two leaders also concurred to consider increasing the number of Indian students studying in Japan, and to promote tourism exchanges by designating the year 2023 as the “Japan-India tourism exchange year”. Prime Minister Modi stated that he himself would be actively involved in increasing the number of foreign students.